Film Details

Rome '78

United States | 1978 | James Nares

As part of tonight’s public opening of the new exhibition in CIA’s Reinberger Galleries (adjacent to Aitken Auditorium), we present a classic feature film by one of the four artists spotlighted in the show, James Nares. He will also attend our screening. Nares is a British-born, New York-based painter and video artist who was also a major figure in the underground "No Wave" movement that sprouted in New York’s Lower East Side during the 1970s and 1980s. A Del-Byzanteens bandmate of Jim Jarmusch and Contortions cohort of James Chance, Nares made numerous short videos and Super 8 movies during the seventies, as well as the zero-budget narrative feature that we show tonight. Rome '78 finds an all-star No Wave cast (Lydia Lunch, Eric Mitchell, James Chance, John Lurie, Lance Loud, Patti Astor, et al.) enacting an Ancient Roman drama in an American city and civilization experiencing their own decline and fall. The film centers around Emperor Caligula, played by artist David McDermott of McDermott & McGough.